RESIDENTS of a block of flats were evacuated by fire fighters after an electrical fuse box caught alight.

About eight residents living in a single property divided into six flats in Handsworth Wood Road, Handsworth Wood, were led from the scene just before 5am today.

The fire was on the ground floor of the three-storey block.

Crew Commander Gerald Adams from Handsworth Fire Station said: "There was damage to the flats because smoke travelled through the electrical trunking which ran through the whole block.

"The whole block was left smoke-logged after the incident but thankfully it was not the thick, black smoke we normally see at fires."

In a seperate incident a kitchen was left gutted in a fire which broke out at a Birmingham flat in the early hours of today.

Firefighters from Ward End were called to the scene of the incident in Overpool Road at around 2am after neighbours had raised the alarm. A spokesman for West Midlands Fire Service said: "When we arrived we found a severe fire in the kitchen of the ground floor flat in a two-storey maisonette.

"There was no one in the flat and no one was injured but the kitchen was left more than 60 per cent gutted and the rest of the flat had suffered considerable smoke damage. At this stage it's not clear how the fire started so an investigation will take place to establish the cause."